OK, I have a 6 year old DS who is terrified at night (of everything and anything) He comes running into our room in a panic 2-3 times a night, several nights a week. We always walk him back to his room, but he almost always returns as soon as we fall asleep again. My DH and I are at our wits end. My 3 year old DD copies DS because I guess she thinks that what shes supposed to do and now she has been coming in our room too often too. My kids sleep together many nights, we allowed this after we tried almost everything else and it worked at first, but now our little night stalkers are back in full force! Anyone else have this type of problem? At 6, shouldnt he be sleeping better? There are times when he gets just 5-6 hours of sleep and seems fine all day. No naps or anything. We talked to his doctor and he says just be consistent, which for the most part we have but just wondering if anyone has been through this and what has worked. Thanks!

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Jill
jatalamo@aol.com
Mom to Joey (8) and Gianna (6)

Our kids sleep well. We never allowed them to sleep with us and always fall asleep in their own bed. But when my youngest was about 4 or 5 she started to wake up in the night with nightmares. What we did and it worked like a charm was "Happy Thoughts" every night when we tucked them in (oldest wanted the attention, so she got them, too). After teeth were brushed and they were in bed, we'd sit on the edge of their bed and recount the happy things that day. Could be big or little ie: playing outside with friends, it snowed that day, their favorite meal for dinner, something fun at school, something they were looking forward to tomorrow, daddy home from a business trip, whatever...just so as they dozed off that night, they were thinking positive thoughts. The nightmares ended immediately and we did happy thoughts for 3 or 4 years. I think we just stopped this summer (she's 10 now). They both loved them. Sometimes they'd think of them or I would, didn't matter, just so the thoughts were fresh in their head.

Easy and worth a try...HTH.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

My DD is only 6 months old, but she has been sleeping through the night since she was 3 months old. Yea!!! Before that, she didn't sleep much at all - she was too busy screaming and crying. I can only pray that she continues to sleep well through the night.

Please don't anyone hate me...I was just lucky, I guess. All three of my boys slept throught the night by 7 weeks. Only the youngest (will be 10 in May) wakes up 2 or 3 times a year with a stomachache or headache.

My kids (8 and 5) sleep VERY good...I've never had a problem getting them to bed and normally they sleep all night long. Occasionally one will wake up in the middle of the night and sneak in my bed...I'll wake up in the morning and have one next to me. But 99% of the time when I tell them bedtime, they go to bed and I dont see them again until morning...

I was blessed with a son that at 2 weeks slept thru the night and has since. He now at 21 sleeps thru the dog barking from the foot of his bed

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Laura
Please visit my blog
http://mylifeinlaurasworld.blogspot.com/

My kids are not great sleepers. Dd was afraid to sleep in her room (bad dreams), she's 6 now. We got her good dream spray (strawberry lemonade body spray from B&BW). We had her pick her favorite scent (well second favorite since I knew I couldn't find french fry smelling spray!). We spray her room before bed and now she sleeps better. Ds has severe food allergies so he is always up eating, because he's wet, or doesn't want to sleep. He's 11 mo though.

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I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version the of truth.

My kids are all great sleepers...in fact, it's hard to get my 13 year old daughter up sometimes. My 10 year old still prefers to sleep with a dim light on...he's never liked the dark. He has been trying to sleep with just a nightlight on though which is good. When my oldest son (he's 15) was a baby, he slept great from the time we brought him home from the hospital. People thought we were making that up and it was to amazing to be true. Looking back, I think I now know what it was. He was born in Hawaii...we had a koi pond right outside of his bedrom window. I think the gurgling from the water lulled him to sleep. My advice to new parents...buy one of those indoor fountains or sound machines with the sound of running water. ~Lisa

We use white noise in the kids' rooms as well. They like to have a fan running all year on 'low'. We set it facing away from them in the Winter and toward them in the Summer. I discovered this because as babies, they always slept better when the humidifier was running so we figured out that it was the motor.

My DS had similar bad dreams at about the same age as your son. We discovered that he was sleeping with his head under the covers and probably running out of oxygen? As soon as we had him learn to sleep with his head outside of the covers, things improved. He also has a teddy bear that he still holds when he has bad dreams (12yo!).

Both of our kids are GREAT sleepers... Sorry for your problems. That has to be hard!

Well, some nights they do!! They actually all slept great as babies! My second daughter stopped sleeping great at eight months...she sleeps better now, she should she is eight years old! She occasionally will come down to say "Hi" in the night.

My son slept through the night from the first night...but now comes in our bed every morning around 5:30 and goes back to sleep with us until we get up at 7:00. I don't mind. He is our last little guy and I know he won't come in to sleep with us forever.

My other two are great sleepers!!! Although my oldest will wake me up to tell me she is going to go to the bathroom!!! Um, okay. Then I'll drift off and she'll come back to tell me she is done and going back to bed...nice.

We use fans for white noise also.

What would I do in your case? After I finished crying because I REALLY need my sleep...I'd pray really hard! Then, I'd continue returning him to bed being firm and consistent. How about a reward system for staying in bed...make in a little chart where he can earn a sticker for each night spent in bed all night with a dollar store type prize after a few days, bigger prize after a week.

Would you be opposed to him being on a sleeping bag on your floor? Might provide him a little comfort and hopefully after a few nights of a hard floor he'd decide his own bed is more comfortable.

Our kids have always been good sleepers. This is one trait they take after me. My DH says I fall asleep in 3 breaths, which is probably true.

Anyway, we also use the sound machines (white noise), so maybe that does have something to do with it. We are also pretty consistent with bedtime, etc. They don't have TV's in their bedrooms which I've heard can sometimes cause sleep problems.

One trick a friend of mine used with her son who constantly got up was to use M&M's. Her son tended to keep getting up before he fell asleep though, so it's a different situation, but maybe it would help someone. Anyway, she would put 10 M&M's by his bed and tell him that anytime he got up, she would eat one of the M&M's. If he didn't get out of bed, he could eat them all in the morning. When he would get out of bed, she would eat one right in front of him and I don't think it took very long for him to quit getting out of bed.

I thought that was interesting and maybe it would help someone, I don't know!

I've been there. My ds, who is now 13 had night terrors all the time. It is a really tough time BUT fairly common for people this age. I know it is scary b/c they look awake but mumble and talk about wierd stuff and they seem terrified, which is heartbreaking to a mom. My ds did this for about 6 years...(sorry for that bit of news) I think this has to just run it's course...they say to not question them the next morning or they will become self concious (SP?) about it since they have no memory about it.
Just have a bed time routine, maybe with a happy story..something to have on his mind as he drifts off...
Please pray about this and ask God to take this away...that will work, Prayer always works.
As far as the 3 year old goes, man that's tough, tell her that it makes you so tired when kids wake up and wake up mom and dad. Or put a couple of sleeping bags on your bedroom floor and just accept the fact this is the way things are for now. Good Luck and hang in there!

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"Cougars for Cook"

Off Topic, I guess, but how do you all get them down for naps? My DS is 7 months and fights sleep . . . He sleeps great at night, but during the day he sleeps for maybe a half hour or so several times a day. Any thoughts?

At seven months mine were all taking two naps a day...one a few hours after they got up in the am for about 1-2 hours and another about three hours after they got up from their morning nap, for about 2hours. Then off to bed around 7:00-7:30. I think the key is to keep them busy and stimulated so they can stay awake a good amount of time before they fall asleep...three hours at that age would be the tops for my kids for being awake at a stretch. Also not letting them not get overtired was a key thing for us because then they'd sleep terribly.

If he sleeps great at night I wouldn't be overly concerned. It makes your day smoother though if they'll give you a couple hours at a time.

My husband and I love our sleep so thank god our son sleeps great.We make sure he is in bed by 8:00 -8:30 on school nights and he gets up between 7-7:30 a.m.I think sleep is so important, I am so amazed at a bunch of people I know whos kids stay up till 11:00 and later.I am talking about grade school kids.The parents don't think it affects the kids but I work at the school and I can really tell the kids who don't get enough sleep.We also don't let our son go to sleep with the television on.I know we are really blessed to have a good sleeper.

Thankfully, both of mine have been great sleepers since they were infants.

My son(now 10) had the hardest time sleeping in his own bed but that was my fault. My hubby worked nights so I had him in my bed with me and then daughter came along and she was in bed also. When hubby started working days we had to get them in their own rooms. My daughter(just turned 6) had no problems going in her own room but every night my son begged to sleep with her. This worked for a while but then we had to seperate them because they talked to much. Now she is the one who has been begging for me to sleep with her or gets up every time the cat comes in her room or the wind blows. I have to keep her ceiling fan on every night to drowned out the noises.

I agree with 4CSMOM.

I started typing an answer to that effect this afternoon but noticed the time and had to go pick up kids from school.
You may think your DS is awake when actually he's not. They can sit and carry on an intelligent conversation that will make you think they're awake. When DD went through this, DH was the only one that could console her and bring her around to wakefulness. DS is 11 and has finally outgrown this phase.
Another suggestion is to make sure your DS isn't watching anything disturbing on TV.

i can't get my DD to get a good night's rest and it makes for a horrible evening for the rest of the family. She wants to stay up all night and play so she doesn't get much sleep. I have tried everything with her but nothing works. It makes it even worse since she's ADHD so trying to get her in bed always turns into a huge arguement. She actually completely stopped taking naps when she was about 2 months old and apparently from what I understand was a very early warning sign that she was ADHD. She is now almost 10yrs old and it just keeps getting worse. I do hope that you can find a solution to help you. Good luck!

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"Let me watch my children grow to see what they become
Lord don't let that cold wind blow til I'm too old to die young'

WOW Thanks for all the great posts!

My son does have night terrors too, they are not often, maybe once every couple of months. Thats not the pressing problem though. I really think you hit the nail on the head when you said make sure he isnt watching anything disturbing on TV. I believe thats how this all started, with something scary and disturbing that happened (a tradjedy in our family--My Brother, Uncle Tommy died in a plane crash) My son was 3 but very aware. He is a worry wart to begin with. Now he wont fly, and we have a Disney Cruise scheduled and he is afraid it will sink...etc

We got him the Stranger Safety DVD thinking it was a good thing and it just turned out to scare him more (strangers can hurt me or take me away) We stopped watching the news while he was around to try to limit the negatives in his world, but it hasnt really helped. He wont even go in his room alone during the day, he has to follow me around the house and If I go out to get the mail, he comes flying out the door to be with me. I wish I knew where we went wrong, we obviously let him have too much information somewhere along the line. (too much for his personality anyway)I wish he would feel safe is his own home, that bothers me. I believe that if we solve his problem, my DD will fall in liine, shes only copying him, she pretty easy going and not afraid to be alone.

So happy to hear about the good sleepers. We do get some good nights, but not many :-)

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Jill
jatalamo@aol.com
Mom to Joey (8) and Gianna (6)

Have you had your daughter tested for food allergies? Our youngest gets nothing sweet after 5pm, fruit sugar will keep him up. No juice, fruit or cookies/candy or simple sugar foods. I would definiately look at her diet. A lot of children who are ADHD also have many food allergies ( the most common being wheat and dairy) and severe vitamin/mineral deficency (sometimes it is just something so simple like adding 500mg of magnesium to their diet). So my best advice is keep track of what she eats and add and subtract things out of her diet. GL

GOSH this sounds so familiar! Mine were both in my bed until age 2 , and now sleep together many nights.

I try to tell my kids that I cant be a happy playful Mommy if I keep getting woken up, but I dont think they understand. We also do the ceiling fan thing, nightlights, keep the hall light on...and we tell them they are not to come in our room until its light out, so my son comes inaround 4 and wakes me to ask if its light enough yet...LOL...Not really funny but Funny, know what I mean!

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Jill
jatalamo@aol.com
Mom to Joey (8) and Gianna (6)

my 2 younger kids have nightmeres if they sleep alone they never have them in my room so I let all 3 of my girls sleep in my room oldest on the floor & 2 youngest in my bed, dh works overnights so it works out fine

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mom of 3 greats girls

My DS (11) sits up a dozen or more times a night --totally asleep and sometimes even kneels or STANDS UP on the bed! It makes me crazy. Especially since he sleeps on a high-bunkbed at his dad's house. He can sit up and be totally asleep and just sit there sleeping. It's weird, especially if he's in bed with you! I don't mind if he's had a bad dream if he comes in my bed cause i used to have to do it all the time when i was little. However, the minute he sits up like this, i'm awake.

Does anybody else have a sleep-mover/walker???

and fortunately sleep very well. One thing that has worked for us since they were little is having a CD player next to their beds. It puts them to bed with "happy thoughts" (and if they can't sleep they have something to keep them occupied.) If they wake up in the middle of the night they sometimes turn it back on. I have often heard the Wiggles at 4am.. but it helps them put themselves back to sleep.

When my son was younger I would wake up and he would be in the middle of our bed. What we did was put a sleeping bag on our floor. We told him he could come and sleep there in the middle of the night if he didn't wake us up. I would find him there all the time. After awhile that got old and he was fine again in his own room.

Good luck..

It sounds like he has a lot of anxiety right now and just needs extra love and reassurance from Mom day and night. I would eliminate any TV or video games with any kind of violence at all and just spend as much time with him as you can giving him extra loving to show him that he'll be okay, that you'll be there for him. Hopefully soon he'll be more secure and begin sleeping better.

DS does this all the time. He'll even talks when he does it, most of the time you can't understand what he says but when you can uunderstand him, he'll carry on a conversation with you as long as you talk about what ever he was talking about. When we notice him doing it, we'll tell him to lay back down and he will. At least he's not walking in his sleep anymore. Had a problem for a while with him peeing on the kitchen floor. LOL He never remembered getting up and going pee, never could figure out why he was going in the kitchen instead of the bathroom, they're in different directions. Maybe he was dreaming he was somewhere else?